New On Disc

Relax, fans -- the only evidence that Death Cab for Cutie signed a major-label deal is on the spine of the new album, where it reads ``Atlantic'' instead of ``Barsuk.''

Aside from that bit of small print, ``Plans'' comes off just as you'd expect a Death Cab album would: thoughtful, a little melancholy and impeccably melodic. The songs aren't stacked with the same lush layers as they were on 2003's ``Transatlanticism,'' and unplugged instruments hold greater sway: moody piano on ``Summer Skin,'' for example, and finger-picked acoustic guitar on ``I Will Follow You Into the Dark.'' The latter is a love song, albeit a dark one: ``Love of mine, someday you will die,'' singer Ben Gibbard begins, before assuring her he'll be close behind. Death pops up again on the heartbreaking ``What Sarah Said,'' an attempt to find solace in the surreal environs of a hospital waiting room while a loved one dies.

The scope of ``Plans'' is less grandiose than that of ``Transatlanticism,'' and the songs are subtler. But they hang together with stirring rainy-day cohesion: Gibbard's plaintive vocals search for meaning in the existential gloom while his always tasteful band holds the flashlight. Although fans feared for the band's music once Atlantic entered the picture, even a floundering major record company couldn't ruin these ``Plans.''

-- ERIC R. DANTON

HILLBILLY DELUXE

Brooks and Dunn

Arista Nashville

Their amazing run of success looked to be in jeopardy when they closed the 1990s with a dud album, but Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn have since returned to hit-generating form and strung together four consecutive awards from the Country Music Association for best vocal duo. ``Hillbilly Deluxe'' reinforces their bid to make it five. The album makes its mark as a smart collection of lively pop-country singles that play to the pair's high-energy strengths.

Dunn's voice drives the pair's most accessible material, his supple bark smoothing the contours of the mandolin-dripping anthem ``Just Another Neon Night.'' The loose backwoods style of the title track is a touch too unrefined for Dunn's approach, but on most tunes he has ample opportunity to finesse lyrics as slickly as he handles ``She's About as Lonely as I'm Going to Let Her Get,'' amid a swell of pedal steel guitar.

Brooks delivers robust honky-tonk when he takes the spotlight, grappling gamely with the rocking bob of ``One More Roll of the Dice,'' despite a voice that whines and crackles more than any since Pat Buttram assayed Mr. Haney on ``Green Acres.'' Brooks as gristle and Dunn as sheen is a predictable combination by now, but the pair continues to unearth fresh material to make that formula work.

-- THOMAS KINTNER

OH NO

OK Go

Capitol

A combination of catchy power-pop hooks and witty lyrics made OK Go's self-titled debut one of the bigger musical pleasures of 2002. ``Oh No,'' the band's second album, retains the hooks and the wit, but adds an edgier musical complexion, courtesy of Swedish producer Tore Johansson, who also shaped Franz Ferdinand's 2004 debut.

OK Go's guitars growl with more menace and many of the songs have darker arrangements, as if the Chicago quartet has returned even more determined than before to rock. And rock they do, starting with the quick burst of feedback that opens Track 1, ``Invincible.'' The churning guitars can't hide the effusive vocal melody, which finds singer Damian Kulash Jr. lauding a super being who will prevail ``when they finally come to destroy the earth.''

He does it with a straight face, which is one of the band's strengths: matter-of-fact lyrical treatment of unusual topics. Kulash, who majored in semiotics at Brown, clearly loves playing with language on the anti-Valentine's anthem ``Crash the Party'' and ``A Good Idea at the Time,'' which comes complete with a Cars-style intro riff and handclaps.

Because it's a denser album, ``Oh No'' takes a little longer to sink in. Once it does, though, there's no getting it out.

-- ERIC R. DANTON

HANNA-MCEUEN

Hanna-McEuen

MCA Nashville

At its best over the past decade, the Americana movement has provided an authentic audio glimpse of country's true roots, and a welcome antidote to the faceless, genre-less pap Music Row churned out by the monster truckload in the '90s. At its dusty and humorless worst, however, it's made an album like this one seem even fresher and more inventive than it already is. The sons of two founders of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (and of identical twin sisters), Jaime Hanna and Jonathan McEuen debut with a collection that's a reminder of all the things that can be great about slickly-produced country-rock.